Partners
by Aspirator
Summary: How long does it take for Syaoran and Sakura to go from barely friends to more than friends, and Tomoyo and Eriol to finally get it together? One graduation project, one hundred and eighty days, and fifteen chapters. Sakura grinned, excitement barely contained, "let's do this."
1. Chapter 1

**Partners**

_Aspirator_

Important Notes: Don't let the fancy wording confuse you. T minus just means I'm counting down the days. T means time.

Any acronyms, my own made up ideas, proper nouns that you don't recognize, I will explain at the end of the story. This is just to keep the flow of the story going.

Disclaimer for the entire story: **CCS belongs to CLAMP. **Also, cover image belongs to Alfredo Saavedra on Flickr.

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**T minus 180 days.**

It all started with, "May I have the honor of being your partner?"

Twinkling emerald eyes glanced up with surprise at the charming voice, she blinked, then smiled dazzlingly. "Since you said it that way," Sakura replied jovially, "you may."

Syaoran plopped down in the recently vacated seat next to her, half in relief at her acceptance and half tiredly from pulling an all-nighter the night before. He continued with a slight curve of the lips, "So if I had said it any other way..."

"I would have to think about it," Sakura teased.

"Phew," Syaoran sighed, wiping a hand across his forehead theatrically, "it's good thing I practiced that in the mirror then."

Sakura laughed, causing Syaoran's smile to widen in contagion. She looked as if about to say something but Takashi - the former tenant of Syaoran's current seat - bounced up to them, sending Syaoran a playful glare. "How dare you steal my spot?"

Syaoran looked around the chair, then turned back to the fellow graduate student, "Doesn't have your name on it." He shrugged, then sent him a grin.

Takashi balled up his fists, but not surprisingly, couldn't keep the smile off his face, ruining his attempt at looking mad. Sakura and Syaoran only laughed at him, and with a shrug, he relaxed, giving up his argument.

He turned to Sakura, but before he could ask his question, Sakura beat him to it. "I think Chiharu's waiting for a partner over there." She suggested with a tilt of her head and a flick of her eyes. The three architecture undergraduate students glanced at their classmate a few tables away, her short mahogany strands covering half her face as she bowed over a sheet of paper in concentration.

Takashi reddened slightly, he threw a wave at his so-called friends as he backed away. "Alright, fine, I'll go away."

Sakura grinned in response.

"Playing matchmaker, are we?" Syaoran commented.

Sakura turned to him, "_I_ am, you didn't contribute at all." She attempted to look at him accusingly but only came off as playfully annoyed.

With a swish of his brown hair, Syaoran shook his head sadly. "You've been hanging out with Tomoyo too much."

Sakura grinned proudly, "I can never hang out with Tomoyo too much; she _is_ my best friend _and_ roommate!"

Syaoran rolled his eyes, "One day, you two will just mold into one person."

"We already have." Tomoyo piped up suddenly appearing beside Sakura.

At Syaoran's bewildered expression and a slip of his tongue - "What the-" - the best friends laughed hilariously.

Syaoran blinked, then sat back as if stupefied. He sat up again, turning his whole body to face the pair, his palms out in accordance with his speech, "You-where-HOW!?"

"She was crawling on the floor to avoid Eriol." Sakura explained, earning a playful smack from her best friend.

"Sakura, don't ruin it!" Tomoyo frowned.

Before any of the trio could react, a voice intercepted, belonging to one dark-haired, blue-eyed student with glasses running up to them. "There you ar-"

"I think I heard my name," Tomoyo lied, already beginning to walk away, "hey Naomi, you called me?"

Sakura smiled cheerfully as the rejected student walked up to them just as the object of his search left him in the dust. "Hi Eriol!"

He glanced at her distractedly, readjusting the books in his right arm and pushing his glasses up with his left index finger. "Oh, Sakura," he nodded at her in greeting, smiling weakly. His eyes shifted to Syaoran's, a stronger smile appeared, raising his eyebrows in acknowledgement.

Syaoran only shrugged lazily in reply, smiling back. Sakura watched the exchange in confusion, then shook her head inwardly, _guys, I'll never understand them._

"Took you long enough, huh," Eriol commented. Sakura's brows furrowed, glancing between the two again.

Syaoran frowned, "Oh shut up." He regarded his own best friend with an accusatory stare, "I'm doing better than you."

"Doing what?" Sakura interjected, but she was ignored.

"You have it easy." Eriol rebutted, glancing at Tomoyo's figure in the back of the classroom, sitting together with another student.

Syaoran sent Eriol a sharp glance, as if in warning, but only spoke casually, "Colin's a good partner. I was with him for the biomimicry project."

Eriol slowly peeled his eyes away from his subject to glance at a charismatic student surrounded by his friends, "He probably already has a partner."

"You never know 'til you try."

"Like you have to right to say that."

Sakura slid down her seat, sulking and muttering, "and you say Tomoyo and I talk telepathically. You two talk out loud but it's like a different language."

The two males glanced at her amusedly. Eriol, catching sight of their professor nearing them, backed away, sending them both a wave of farewell.

"Sakura and Syaoran," Professor Terada boomed in his deep, cheerful voice, "finally two of the best minds I've ever seen joining forces." He shook his head, writing on his clipboard.

Sakura grinned, reddening slightly at the compliment, "no need to exaggerate."

The world renowned architect retiring to the teaching field shook his head enthusiastically, "Oh, no no, not an exaggeration." At Syaoran's sheepish smile, Professor Terada lifted a shoulder, "Okay, maybe a little. But definitely the best two in this class." He looked around scandalously, "Shh, don't tell everyone else."

"Oh, we know! We admit defeat." called a nearby student, and a few others around laughed.

"Alright," Professor Terada turning back to the pair seriously, "Just let me tell you this - you two," he looked between the pair, "It's great. Sakura's definitely design-oriented, imaginative, creative, very important qualities of an architect. And Syaoran, you just make it all work, really, I'm surprised you're not double majoring in engineering, the way you can just bring out the functionality, practicality...beautiful. Both of you together?" He whistled, throwing up his hands, "there are no words."

The pair blushed at the compliments. "Oh stop it," Sakura waved a hand at him.

"Alright, alright, let's see," Professor Terada looked back at his clipboard, crossing something out and then writing a few notes. After a quick moment, he glanced back at them with a grin.

"Uh oh." Syaoran voiced playfully.

"So you understand I'll give you two the hardest assignment, right?" their teacher started, "But, you know what? The harder it is, the more fun it is. Really." Professor Terada nodded seriously, then he set the clipboard down. "Okay here it is, jot it down if you want, but I'm sure you'll remember the prompt. It's a little out there, I'll admit."

Sakura picked up her pencil, looking up at him expectantly, as Syaoran sat back, focusing his attention on his teacher.

Using his hands to emphasize his point, Professor Terada explained, "There was some discovery, another Mayan thing, or Egyptian this time, whatever. They figure the world's about to end. Very soon. They called you two, and said, hey, you know, we need some kind of shelter, building, underground hole - that's for you to decide - to save a select few of our humanity. They want a capacity of fifty people. No more, no less. They're not sure how the how people are going to die. It might be another huge flood, or a hurricane, or a fire...no idea. So you're gonna have to be prepared to survive everything. They're expecting to live in that shelter for about twelve months, and then - since they know for sure the Earth's not going to be destroyed, just any living being on the Earth - so scientists, architects, politicians, they're gonna come back out and rebuild it all again."

"Like a Noah's Ark." Sakura spoke up.

Professor Terada nodded agreeably, "exactly. The same concept. I'm going to have a few requirements here. I want, of course, a more modern concept. I want it to be self-sufficient. We're assuming here that the sun's still gonna be there, water, air, all these natural resources. You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

The two students laughed.

"Yeah, I mean it, you two. Really, here's the hint, use the natural disaster to your advantage." Professor Terada smiled widely, "It's going to be like a home for these people, and I want it to be something that they can still use later, even when they've left and built up their civilization. It can just be an explanation or a separate CAD (those 3-D computer made designs) model to show its functions once civilization is back up again. We also need labs and workspace for these people to work in while they build up civilization, analyze the new Earth…" the professor trailed off, nodding at them, "You got it?"

"So we're building a Noah's self-sufficient ark-plus for fifty people." Syaoran simplified.

The Professor shook his head at him, "You had to make me ramble, didn't you? Yes, perfect, Syaoran. Questions?"

"What about plants and animals?" Sakura asked.

He shook his head sadly.

"What!" Sakura pouted.

"How about this, the scientists have figured a way to just bring a living cell that they will use biology or whatever science over there, Bill Nye ology, and make all kinds of animals, plants, bugs, from there. Just - it won't be a problem, it'll be a small capsule or something they can leave in the lab. Don't worry about it."

Sakura nodded.

"What materials can we use? When is it due? How big can the project be?" Syaoran questioned.

"Anything. You have access to any material. Good question. We're going to set up a little - I shouldn't say little - I mean, huge gallery in the Student Center. More than display it and you tell me about it, you're going to present your project. It'll be open to the public, and your classmates. But I'm gonna bring in my friends -" Sakura's jaw dropped, causing the professor to pause and chuckle. "alright, friends would be a light word. So NAAB (National Architecture Accreditation Board) members, people from the American Institute of Architects, the world's great architects are gonna fly in, I think I've already had the Dean of the Syracuse School of Architecture respond…"

Sakura's whole body visibly tensed, and Syaoran frowned slightly.

"Look, don't worry about it. You two will do fantastic. And you two, you know, I'm making so many exceptions and my wife tells me I shouldn't have favorites, but you know, anyway, I've planned out spaces with the staff and areas for each group to set up. I have also reserved the entire White Space for one project, I was thinking this one, since it is the hardest, and I'm very happy to give it to you."

"The whole place?" Sakura responded incredulously.

"Yup, all of it. Do anything with it, put your project on the ceiling, the walls, whatever. I would leave lots of space for the audience, however, I'm expecting a big crowd, especially for you two."

"I'm pretty sure the whole class will be there." Another student interjected again, and many nearby or passersby voiced agreements.

"There. That's twenty people already. I'm sure the crowd will be three times that size. And there'll be people coming in and out that day. Just," Professor Terada looked at Sakura's scared expression, "don't worry, you will do absolutely amazing. I know it already."

"Any more questions?" Professor glanced between the two, "Going once, going twice...no?"

Both shook their heads.

Professor Terada picked up his clipboard, "I have high expectations for you two, alright? I want to be blown away - no, I want to be launched into outer space."

"Yes sir." Syaoran responded confidently.

Sakura grinned, "We'll do our best."

"And I'll expect nothing less for your graduation project." He stated as he left.

Once left alone, the two turned to each other. Syaoran was the first to speak, "okay. We've got six months to pull this together. That's one hundred and eighty days."

Sakura grinned, excitement barely contained, "let's do this."

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**White Space:** this is an entirely made up concept for a separate room made as a multi-purpose room in the Student Center. It has all - you guessed it - white walls and white floors and white ceilings. It's about the size of two tennis courts.

Note: This kind of defeats the purpose of going on hiatus while working on college applications and such, but I just needed a stress reliever (and time waster). I have already written ten chapters to this fifteen-chapter story. And no, I will not post them all right now, you silly readers, I'll post a chapter per week.

I love architecture, it's the coolest thing ever. Any thoughts on this, ideas for their project, what you think is gonna happen next? Let me know below!


	2. Chapter 2

**T minus 170 days**

"Hey." Chiharu spoke softly as she plopped herself down on a seat in front to Tomoyo, her books making a thud as it landed unceremoniously on the library table. Many students from neighboring tables jumped and looked up at the noise, some even sending glares. Chiharu paid them no heed. She focused her attention on the stressed out look on Sakura's face a few paces away as she talked quietly on her phone in between bookshelves. "What's up with her?"

Tomoyo barely looked up from her sketchbook, "boyfriend," she replied emotionlessly.

Immediately, Chiharu understood. She watched Sakura for another moment, then turned back to Tomoyo, opening a book in front of her as she spoke, "I heard she got the hardest grad project."

"Yeah," Tomoyo replied absentmindedly, "but she'll be fine, it's Sakura."

Chiharu agreed silently. But when she glanced back at Sakura, she bit her lip at the dark frown on Sakura's face. She caught Sakura's eye, who waved at her with a fake smile on her face. Chiharu smiled uncertainly back. Deciding to stop sneaking glances at her friend, Chiharu focused on the sullen girl in front of her, "So I never got to ask, who is your partner?"

This time, Tomoyo set her pen down with a sigh, looking up at Chiharu with an annoyed frown. "Eriol." She gritted out.

Chiharu couldn't help but laugh.

Tomoyo scowled at her, "Apparently everyone else was paired but us and we had no choice. Of course Professor Terada was great and tried to help us but -" Tomoyo sighed, then shook her head. She picked up her pencil again, going back to her drawing.

Chiharu suppressed a frustrated sigh. Tomoyo and Eriol have been going on and off with their relationship. It's like neither of them can decide if they love or hate each other. Her eyes shifted down to Tomoyo's sketchbook. She commented lightly, "I never understood why you didn't go into Fashion Design, most of your portfolio to get into this major were clothes you made, the other half were illustrations."

"I still make clothes, occasionally." Tomoyo lifted a shoulder, "It's more like a hobby. And anyway, architecture's interesting."

Chiharu nodded, though not quite convinced. She understood that Tomoyo had her own reasons and she'll respect that.

There was another sigh, causing Chiharu to look up and to her left. Sakura plopped down next to her, phone in her hand. When Chiharu turned to her, Sakura smiled amiably at her, speaking up first, "Hey Chiharu!"

She may seem cheerful, but Chiharu didn't fail to notice the defeated slouch in her posture. Chiharu grinned back. "Hey Sakura." She paused, a slow, mischievous smile meandering onto her face, "How are you and Syaoran, by the way?"

Tomoyo looked up, interested in the conversation.

Sakura cocked her head to the side, surprised by the question. "Um, we're just getting started and stuff - you know brainstorming for our project."

"That's not what I asked." Chiharu replied, half-sternly, half-softly.

Sakura let out a small smile when she understood Chiharu's meaningful gaze. "Syaoran's awesome. He's really nice and I feel like we understand each other really well."

"Good." Chiharu grinned. "So you don't intend to stop gushing about him."

The brunette flushed, scowling at her friend, "I don't _gush-"_

"You don't?" Tomoyo interjected teasingly. She raised the pitch of her voice, mimicking her, "'Syaoran has the best ideas!' 'Oh my gosh Syaoran's a genius!' 'aww, I wish I was his partner for that project'"

Sakura protested profusely, her face tomato red in embarrassment. Chiharu dissolved in laughter.

"I don't -I just - he's -I" Sakura scowled, though it looked more like a pout.

After the teasing so-called friends of Sakura's stopped giggling, Chiharu couldn't resist mimicking her, "you don't- you - I - I - stut-stut-stutter?"

"I mean, he's cool." Sakura finally spoke a coherent sentence. "Syaoran's really smart and cool, okay, and I get to be his partner and it's cool-"

"Welp, there she goes again." Tomoyo stage whispers to Chiharu.

"Hey!" Sakura protested, "fine, nevermind." She huffed, crossing her arms cutely.

Chiharu and Tomoyo only giggled with each other at her expense.

Sakura clicked the unlock button on her phone, checking the time. Apparently, it was not as she had thought, for she quickly gathered her things around the table, muttering hastily, "speaking of Syaoran, I'm supposed to meet him at the Student Center right now!" She had said in explanation, but continued in her mutters, "Oh no, I'm gonna be late! It takes half an hour to get there from here." She scurried off.

Her two friends bid their farewell calmly, used to her always rushing off because she just doesn't keep track of time.

After a moment of studious silence, Tomoyo spoke up, casually, "Too bad Syaoran's not her boyfriend."

"He should be." Chiharu agreed. "I hate that Josh character."

Tomoyo let out a breath of laughter at her friend's use of words. "I don't know why she stays with him. I can't tell if she feels bad for him, she's too nice to break up, or she thinks that she won't get anyone else so she might as well."

Chiharu rolled her eyes, "She's definitely too good for him. She deserves so much better. Half the students population here knows it."

"I knew she wanted date when she got to college," Tomoyo revealed, having been best friends with Sakura for almost her entire lifetime, "but of all people, Josh? The conceited, selfish, dumb ass douche bag." Tomoyo let out passionately in one breath.

Though Chiharu remained calm on the outside, she couldn't agree more. She defended, "it's not her fault. He just got to her before anybody else."

Meanwhile, Syaoran waited patiently on a bench outside the Student Center. Their campus was vast and highly populated by nature, so he didn't mind being outside. He was reading a book for his history in civil and engineering class- Professor Terada was still right, he wasn't majoring in engineering, he was minoring in it. When he heard hurried footsteps, he looked up to see Sakura running up to him comically with a few books under her arm, some tilting dangerously, as if unsure to succumb to gravity or stay with the cheerful brunette. Once she neared him, he stood up, tucking his book under his arm and stuffing his hands in his pockets. Syaoran smiled at her, forgivingly, because she had already started chanting her 'sorry's.

"It's okay," Syaoran nodded at the book under his arm, "I was getting some studying done." He knew she was always late, but he didn't anticipate having to wait for an hour.

Sakura glanced at the book, then smiled in relief, but still profusely, "I feel so bad, Syaoran, really. Whenever we agree on a time, just show up late, I probably still won't be there."

Syaoran smiled only in response, looking at her questionably then at the doors of the Student Center. Sakura moved to walk with him, then let out an 'oh!', changing her course.

Syaoran only had the chance to send her a confused look before seeing that she stepped aside to reveal another girl right behind her. Huh, he hadn't noticed her sidle up.

She was petite like Sakura, with long, curly tresses of smooth ebony, passionate dark eyes that look almost red in the light. She seemed amiable, down to earth, and dressed comfortably - but cutely - in a knit pullover and sweatpants.

Smiling sheepishly, Sakura turned to the girl, "um, that's Syaoran, my grad project partner. We're gonna-"

She waved her palm at the air as if to dismiss Sakura's thoughts, "no need to explain, Sakura," she spoke laughingly, "you told me what you guys were doing here."

"Oh, right," Sakura laughed. She turned to Syaoran this time, "Syaoran, this is-"

"Meiling, I know." Syaoran interrupted, reaching out to shake the girl's hand, mostly for show.

Sakura looked between the two. "Do you two-"

"Know each other? You could say so." Meiling shared a secretive smile with Syaoran.

"I think you two will have lots to talk about," Sakura spoke up poutingly, "like how to interrupt my sentences."

"We let you finish this time." Syaoran pointed out cheekily, causing Meiling to laugh at her expense.

Sakura scowled at them sulkily. She strode on ahead, leading her friends into the Student Center where other architecture students were already scouting out their areas of display.

"So I'm guessing she doesn't know." Meiling commented lightly as she strode beside Syaoran.

Syaoran sent her a sharp look, "nobody knows."

"Except for me, obviously." Meiling ignored his alarm. "What are you going to do when the time comes? Leave in the middle of the night?"

Syaoran frowned. "if I have to."

"It won't hurt to let people know you sometimes." Though Meiling looked as if talking about the weather, there was an underlying serious tone in her voice. "That Eriol's sharp. He's gonna notice when we both leave at the same time. He's gonna wonder."

"Let him wonder." Syaoran was stubborn.

Meiling didn't get to argue, for Sakura wandered back to them cheerfully taking their conversation on a happier course.

The three spent nearly three hours in the White Space, though it was mostly Sakura and Syaoran talking, but Meiling had added in some contributions. Sakura and Syaoran were both nice people, Meiling observed, they tried to include her in their conversations. But since she was a linguistics major, she couldn't be of much help. She wasn't bored, however, she had homework to work on, and it was nice in their company and in a new environment.

"Professor Terada has such high expectations for us!" Sakura was stressing out, pulling lightly at her hair, "I just don't know if we'll meet it. All I can think of right now is, I don't know, a - a big trailer for 500 people to live in and-ahh I don't know!"

"We can modify our design as we go along," Syaoran replied calmly, reassuringly, "whatever we come up with, I'm sure Professor Terada'll still be, quote, 'launched into outer space'"

Sakura's lips lifted only slightly at his placating tone, then as if a thought occurred to her just then, her smile widened and her entire face lit up.

Syaoran blinked at her change in expression. It was much like seeing a light bulb turn on. And it was absolutely endearing.

Holding out her right index finger, Sakura grinned at a bemused looking Syaoran, almost bouncing in her seat, she stated, "I've got an idea."

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Note: I've decided I'm going to **update every thursday,** because it's almost the end of the school week! :)

I thought you all hated me, but turns out all my FFN emails are going straight to spam! So you guys should check if that's happening to you too. (And by "all my FFN emails" I meant one, so I still think you guys all hate me)

On another note: I'm considering deleting **Perchance**, for any of you who read my previous CCS stories. Should I delete it? Or just let it be un-completed and all? :( Also, would anyone like to consider finishing the story?


	3. Chapter 3

**T minus 166 days**

"You were right."

Syaoran tilted his head to look around his notebook at his roommate. He was lying on his bed reviewing his notes for his test that afternoon in his engineering class. Eriol, on the other hand, was sitting sullenly at his desk, though his thoughts were nowhere near the work he was doing.

"About what?" Syaoran put down his notebook, straightening up on his bed.

Eriol turned around in his chair, looking up at him in remorse. "I should've stayed in psychology."

Syaoran shrugged, "there was a reason you switched majors. You're here now, that's what matters. What's with the sudden regret?"

Eriol frowned deeply, "Maybe I would've had answers."

Eriol was talking in rhymes again. Syaoran prodded, "To what?"

"To...to people. Maybe I could understand people." Eriol elaborated vaguely.

"But you do," Syaoran replied, still confused, "more than most of us anyway. You see things that we don't."

"Same with Tomoyo."

"So you're both observant people." Syaoran rolled his eyes. "Just tell me, Eriol, what's going on?"

"Tomoyo and I had a fight."

"Oh, really?" Syaoran responded in a voice opposite of his words, giving his roommate a sarcastic look.

Ignoring him, Eriol continued, "It was worse than usual."

"No." The roommate maintained his sarcastic tone.

Eriol glared at him, "Okay, it was about Sakura."

"Ah." Syaoran expressed his understanding. So that explains the 'worse than usual'. Tomoyo usually forgave quickly, never one to worry about the petty things, but when it came to Sakura, it was a whole different story.

"I don't know how to reconcile with her." Eriol sunk in his chair.

"Aren't you and Tomoyo partners? Just casually bring it up, 'I think we should have an arch right here. Oh, by the way, hey, I'm sorry about Sakura and our fight.'"

Though the comment should have emitted a light chuckle from his friend, there was not a sound. Instead, Eriol responded listlessly, "we're not...she's still avoiding me."

Syaoran's jaw nearly dropped. "It's been two weeks, Eriol! That's two weeks you could've brainstormed and came up with ideas and started a sketch -"

"Simmer down, workaholic." Eriol interrupted with a roll of his eyes. "Tomoyo's not like you, she doesn't separate the professional and personal life."

Syaoran frowned, leaning back further into his pillow. "What did you say to her?"

So Eriol told Syaoran. The fight had gone like this:

_It started with Tomoyo complaining about Sakura's relationship with Josh...for the umpteenth time. Eriol has been patient with her for the past three months but it was starting to give him a headache._

"_...and she's all 'hehe sorry I have a bad memory' and she's asked me every detail of our hanging out just because ONE guy was there - aka, YOU! And I'm just all, bad memory? Yeah, right. I swear she doesn't need to defend herself every time she's not hanging out with him." - _

"She's talking about Josh." Eriol explained.

"I know." Syaoran had spoken immediately, a hint of deep irritation in his voice.

_-"He's controlling her!" Tomoyo exclaimed at last._

_Eriol looked up from his notes at the ensuing silence, noticing that she had expected a reply. "Maybe he's overprotective"_

_Tomoyo scowled. "That's a nice way of putting it. What would he need to protect her from? Her own friends? _I've_ been protecting her for the past six years!"_

_"He's just jealous." Eriol shrugged. "He knows Sakura is well loved and he's scared someone's going to steal her while he's not looking."_

_He should've stopped at this point, because Tomoyo crossing her arms was a big red warning sign. "So you're defending him now?"_

_"I'm not-I still disapprove of him, Tomoyo, look, I switched from a psychology major-"_

_"Yeah? Then why don't you analyze his raping tendencies for me huh?"_

_Eriol sighed, knowing where this was heading. "Tomoyo..."_

_"Do it."_

_Eriol thought of all the rumors surrounding Josh. See, Josh was a charismatic character, most of the time. He had a lot of female friends. One of which Tomoyo knew. So Tomoyo asked her about him. And it wasn't long after Josh had met Sakura, about three months ago, that Tomoyo's friend had an experience with Josh. She told Tomoyo how it had gone down. Josh offered her a ride to her apartment, and assuming it was out of kindness, she accepted. Before she got to her apartment however, Josh stopped the car at the side of the road and locked the doors. He then - and Tomoyo's friend would rather not go into the details - strongly coerced her into doing him sexual favors, needless to say, suck his dick. She refused, and threatened to call the police, but he was adamant. Stronger than she is, he took her phone and threw it out the window, to be run over by a car. She was locked in his car, with nowhere to run, and no one to call, he said, she might as well. She refused strongly, and only when she finally agreed but at a later date, did he let her go. Of course, after that, she had cut off all ties with him, and not shown up to the later agreed date._

_After that revelation, Tomoyo asked around, finding other female victims and former friends of Josh's._

_Eriol didn't know what to say. "He's…he has needs, and he's...not shy about his dick…?"_

_"No, really? Why doesn't he just join a frat? I'm sure there are many drunk skanks to rape and better yet they won't remember."_

_"The rumors haven't been proven."_

_Tomoyo looked at him in offense, "My friend gave me a first hand testimony, she was almost raped, that's pretty real!"_

_"Tomoyo," Eriol sighed, "you know I'm grasping at straws here."_

_"Fine you know what, I hate him anyway, but why, WHY is she dating him with full knowledge that he has attempted rape of scholarly, naive, FRIENDS of his, why? She's going into a relationship where she knows she has a very likely chance of becoming a rape victim."_

_Eriol frowned, stating to the best of his ability, "That shows that she trusts him, and she accepts him for who he is, and that's also a reason why he wants to hold on to her so tightly."_

_"you're not answering the question, Eriol! Why is SHE with him?"_

_Eriol rubbed his forehead, thinking back. "He's nice to her, she's told you this, they were good friends and she thinks its just a label and they still have that friendship, they're just closer and..."_

_"It's one thing to be friends, another to have a man tell you who you can or cannot hang out with, who you can or cannot allow in your apartment, and to question your every social interaction with others when he's not present. Why isn't she suffocating, Eriol? It was bad enough she's friends with him but to become his girlfriend - I wanted - I want her to break up with him. I want her to turn him into only an acquaintance. But everytime I bring it up, she's disappointed in me. I don't approve of him and I don't think he's a safe person to hang out with! Why doesn't she understand?"_

_"Maybe she likes him to some degree, maybe she's willing to look past his faults because she likes him." Eriol threw his hands up in frustration. "Maybe she's disappointed in you because you're starting to tell her what to do like he is."_

_Tomoyo's look was dark, her voice shook with anger. "Don't you dare compare me to him."_

_After that, not a word, not even a look._

Syaoran was silent for a while, contemplating on the revelation.

Eriol turned back to his desk, but place his forehead on the cold faux wood surface.

"Maybe you could make it up to Sakura first." Syaoran finally spoke up.

Eriol snapped up and looked at him, excitedly as if he had just solved all his problems. Then a he paused, "but I didn't offend Sakura."

"You kind of assumed what Sakura felt. Maybe you could just explain it to her, and maybe she'll explain it to Tomoyo, and just work from there."

His roommate contemplated the idea. "That could work, I guess." Eriol turned back to his desk, turning on his computer.

"You're welcome," Syaoran called out half-jokingly as he picked his notebook back up.

"Yeah, thanks." Eriol responded in an unappreciative tone, though his smile said otherwise. He asked suddenly,"Hey, aren't you gonna see Sakura today? You've been meeting up with her almost every other day for the project right?"

Syaoran shrugged, not taking his eyes off his notes, he spoke carelessly - though it he did care - "She has work, and then she made up some excuse to cancel. Probably couldn't find another girl to accompany us."

"Oh, 'cause you're a guy and -"

"Yeah." Syaoran cut off. Not watching his mouth, he muttered, "we're just doing our project, _I'm_ not about to rape her."

Eriol half-chuckled, "everyone's annoyed with Josh's rules, huh."

"It's inconvenient for the other girls." Syaoran stated.

"Yeah, yeah." Eriol waved at him dismissively, not fully accepting his excuse.

Syaoran couldn't quite let go of the conversation yet though. He glanced up from his notebook distractedly to speak to Eriol, "Did you know she's doing work-study?"

"Sakura? Yeah." Eriol shrugged nonchalantly, "so?"

"When she has classes she goes and works for six hours, and the days she doesn't have class she works twelve hours." Syaoran stated, "Isn't that a bit much?"

Eriol shrugged again, "I guess she needs the money. You don't get paid much being a Starbucks barista. Eight dollars an hour makes-"

"Working six hours for three days a week, twelve hours for three days, that's 54 hours a week. For four weeks, that's 216 hours, which makes her earning about two thousand dollars in one month!" Syaoran calculated quickly, expressing his incredulity. "That's twenty thousand a year alone!"

"Show off." Eriol muttered playfully, but responded, "Tuition here is almost forty thousand if you count food and supplies. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Shaking his head at Eriol's nonchalance, the roommate finally voiced his concern, "I think she's overworking."

"Someone's concerned about Sakura, hm?" Eriol's eyebrows rose suggestively. When Syaoran didn't respond, Eriol continued, making a point, "Are _you_ gonna pay her tuition?"

With a grim set to his lips, Syaoran looked back down to his notebook.

"Exactly." Eriol nodded in finality, turning back to his desk, commenting, "We all have our own debts to pay off."

It wasn't until a week later that Syaoran was able to see Sakura. It was unexpected however, since both near graduating students were busy with their other classes - Syaoran especially.

He had just finished his Foundations and Constructions Technology exam, walking out of the Clow Engineering building when he stumbled upon a familiar figure aimlessly wandering around.

His first question was, "are you lost?"

Her emerald orbs snapped to him in surprise, her whole body twirling to face him. "Syaoran!"

She looked much like a child who had just found her parents after wandering off in the supermarket for too long.

Syaoran gave her a half-smile, still confused about her presence. He repeated, without much preamble, "are you lost?"

Sakura scratched the back of her neck sheepishly, "I-um-no-but yes -ish."

He only stared at her blankly, half-smile still present on his face from amusement. He decided to approach her from a different angle."Were you looking for something?"

"Uh…" Sakura looked as if too sheepish to reveal her real intentions. She held an index finger up. "The Clow Engineering building!"

Syaoran nudged a thumb behind him, "it's right there." He half turned towards the building, fulling extending his arm. "I could bring you if there's a place you needed to go…" His voice indicated that he didn't think she had any reason to go, but offered his help anyway.

"Oh, no," She waved her hand at him dismissively, brushing a hand through her hair uncomfortably. "I don't need to go there anymore."

"Oh...kay…" Syaoran was completely befuddled at this point. Unsure of how to proceed from this awkward conversation, Syaoran decided he'll do what introverts do best. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up a little. He spoke quickly, "Good luck finding whatever you need to find, I'm gonna go, I guess - unless you need me. Nice seeing you." He hiked his backpack higher on his shoulders, moving away from his friend, still processing what had just happened.

Sakura seemed to have been doing so too, for after a minute, she ran and called after him. With furrowed eyebrows, Syaoran turned to her voice to find her next to him again. He stopped with a questioning gaze.

"I was looking for you." She finally blurted, her cheeks reddening a little.

"Oh." Syaoran was completely dumbfounded, as if such a thing has never happened to him. He subconsciously looked around her for a tag along - as there always was when he met her. "You didn't have to come all the way to East campus."

Seeing his gaze, Sakura laughed dryly. "I just came from work, and this wasn't much of a detour, and I feel bad we haven't been working on our project."

"Oh." Syaoran glanced at his watch, noting that the hour hand point at five and the minute hand point at six. He tilted his head a little as he commented pointedly, "I'm about to go get dinner." But when Sakura grimaced, he remembered that she had a boyfriend and that would be inappropriate. He corrected himself, "right. Um - I -" He held out his palms to show emptiness. "I didn't bring any-"

Sakura shook her head, interrupting, "no - no - this was a surprise, I didn't expect you to bring anything."

Syaoran thought of a solution quickly. "I'll scan it." At Sakura's questioning tilt of her head, he explained, "I worked on some stuff. I'll email it to you."

"What stuff?" Sakura thought of how unproductive their last few meetings had been, only brainstorming ideas. She had finally suggested one that Syaoran said they could use but he couldn't possibly have…

"Your idea," Syaoran elaborated humbly, "I put together a list of materials we'll need to use, what our structure should have, and other engineering stuff to make it work."

Sakura immediately turned apologetic. "Syaoran, you shouldn't have! And to think I hadn't contributed-"

"You came up with the idea." He stated as if that was any work at all.

"-but that's- still! You don't need to be working on this stuff by yourself!" Sakura crossed her arms angrily, "You make me feel bad!"

"I had some time." Syaoran looked away suspiciously.

"Lies," Sakura caught him. "There's no such thing as free time for a double major - especially in engineering! You had exams almost every week this semester!"

Suddenly, he was on the defensive. "How did you know that?"

Sakura clapped her hands over her mouth, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Muffled, she replied, "a little bird told me?"

"It was Eriol." There was no question in his voice.

She dropped her hands, changing the subject subtly, "So about that stuff you were working on," she frowned, declaring humorously in a authoritative voice, "as your partner, I hereby declare no more of that work-by-yourself thing."

Syaoran rolled his eyes, but neither agreed nor disagreed.

"Seriously." Sakura frowned, "But okay, since you already did the work, I'll accept it this time. I'd feel even worse if we don't use it."

"Alright, I'll email it to you tonight," Syaoran shrugged, "probably late."

"It's okay, send it anytime." Sakura waved her hand.

There was that awkward moment in the conversation again. This time it was Sakura who broke it. "I gotta go," she smiled sadly, turning almost reluctantly, "see you around, I guess."

Syaoran smiled in response, nodded his head, turning away too. "Yeah." He responded quietly. With a wave of his hand, he turned completely, parting from her without a look back.

Sakura turned in the other direction smiling to herself as she walked back the way she came.

True to their word, barely an hour later, Sakura _did_ see Syaoran around. But Syaoran hadn't seen her. She was strolling down the lively Fujitaka Street with her boyfriend, considering their dining choices for dinner.

As she glimpsed through the window of a noodle shop, she caught sight of familiar mahogany tufts and a strong, but reserved form in a booth near the window. At a second glance, she confirmed that it was indeed her partner, and noted with a hint of sympathy that he was hungrily devouring a big bowl of noodles with only the air as company.

In the back of her mind, she could almost envision herself comfortably seated in front of him, cheerfully munching away.

"Sakura?" The grip on her hand tightened. Distractedly, Sakura looked away from the window and up at the sea-blue eyes of her boyfriend. Josh glanced in the noodle shop in confusion, trying to see what she had seen. "Do you wanna go in there?"

She had almost said yes, taking a third glance at the lonely form, the now empty bowl, and the empty golden eyes staring straight ahead at the equally empty seat in front of him. Sakura looked back at her boyfriend, smiling despite the conflict within her, "No, let's go." She pulled their intertwined hands forwards as she skipped ahead.

_._

_._

_._

So guess what I forgot to do last night….haha sorry

**Work-study:** A college program that helps students earn money while in college to pay for tuition and other college fees; this program helps students find jobs inside the campus.

Personal note:  The argument between Tomoyo and Eriol about Josh and Sakura? I'm taking that from a real-life situation, in which I'm the Tomoyo, and I just don't understand why. If you have any insights into why someone would date such a character, please enlighten me. Note that after that argument, however, everything is fictional.


	4. Chapter 4

**T minus 149 days**

"We have fifty people live in a compact space - but we can't make it suffocating or claustrophobic. It can't be too big, it can't be too small..." Sakura muttered, waving her hands around to emphasize her point. Jutting out her bottom lip, she blew at her bangs, looking up at the white ceiling. She then - gently - laid on her back, stretched out on the floor. Raising her hands, she created a cube with her fingers, tilting her head, then a circle, then a triangle.

The pair had often gone to the White Space, both to imagine their idea in its setting and for inspiration. An empty space for inspiration, you ask incredulously? Indeed, Sakura had found the space able to give her unlimited imagination, while Syaoran felt like he was working with a fresh, new canvas.

Syaoran sat beside her, crouched over his sketchbook with a pen in his hand. He drew lines, square after square, stacks on stacks, but with a shake of his head, he scratched it out. With a careless toss of his sketchbook, he stood up.

Sakura's eyes strayed to his figure as he walked towards the middle of the large room. There was Tomoyo's old easel given to Sakura a few years back, and a large whiteboard - Syaoran just casually had one in his apartment - propped up on it. In Sakura's neat handwriting were a list of general living space needs; _bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, dining area/living room area, study, storage, and laboratory._

To the left edge of the board were Syaoran's handwriting; _materials: lightweight nanotech. - carbon and silica and polymers. _

Focusing back on Sakura's handwriting, Syaoran spoke up, "This is a shelter." He turned to see Sakura sit up. He matched her gaze evenly, "Not a home." He turned back to the board to pick up a marker, crossing out _dining area/living room area_.

"We still need a kitchen." Sakura came to stand next to him.

"A small one." He crossed it out.

"The storage is mostly for food, and other things," the female partner tapped her chin in thought, "we could mix in the kitchen there."

Nodding, Syaoran wrote in _/kitchen_ next to _storage._

"And then the laboratory-"

Syaoran knew where this was going, "- and study could be combined." He wrote in these additions. "Not everyone needs a bedroom."

"It could be like bunkers." Sakura agreed. They then looked at their modifications. "That narrows it down to four areas to design. Bathroom, bunkers, storage-slash-kitchen, lab-slash-study."

"But let's look at the big picture," Syaoran changed the subject of their study, "we still haven't decided on a general structure."

"If we do a layout of these areas and where we want to put them, then a general structure will form." Sakura disagreed with his method.

Her partner frowned deeply. "I'd rather have a structure to work with. If I don't have a general shape, where would I even begin?"

"But that requires conforming to a set of rules!" Sakura exclaimed in frustration, "and that's limiting!"

Syaoran turned to look at her oddly, his eyes studying her expression.

Sakura looked down at her outburst, muttering a quiet "sorry".

"Don't be sorry for expressing yourself," He responded as quietly, letting out an ironic smile.

She glanced up at him with look, showing that she was not amused.

After a moment, Syaoran finally asked the question that bugged him since the beginning of their meeting, "Why don't we have a babysitter today?"

Sakura stroked her hair, twirling it around her fingers, instantly uncomfortable. Avoiding eye contact, she mumbled something about not wanting to bother people.

"Sakura." Syaoran stated firmly, catching her attention and holding her timid gaze. Putting on his I-can-see-into-your-soul look - it works on almost everybody - Syaoran watched as she shifted her gaze to anywhere but his sharp eyes.

Glancing distractedly at his wrist, Sakura inquired in an attempt to change the conversation, "what happened to your watch?"

Syaoran neither looked down at his wrist nor softened his gaze. "Stolen."

"From your wrist?" She asked incredulously.

"No, I had a collection. Our apartment got broken into. Those were the only stuff stolen." Syaoran explained curtly, not wanting to spotlight to turn on him.

"Oh, I remember Eriol mentioning that a few days ago. You have a collection of watches?" Sakura expressed wonderingly. But her mistake was making eye contact.

Holding her glance, Syaoran looked at her pointedly, "Sakura, what's going on?"

After a bout of seemingly inner struggle, Sakura broke down. "Josh and I had a fight." Sakura revealed.

"You always have a fight. Or so I heard." Syaoran stated, unconvinced, "Eriol and Tomoyo fight a lot too. We just had a fight, ish."

"We had more like a disagreement." Sakura shook her head. "Josh and I had a fight about the rules." She elaborated, "I just...I thought it was because the relationship just started but it's been four months and he still doesn't seem like he trusts me and I don't - I'm naturally free-spirited so this - I can't do it anymore."

"Is that it?" Syaoran asked, sensing there was more.

"I…" Sakura bit her lip, not sure if she should tell him. But seeing as Syaoran was a trustworthy person, she went ahead and explained, "I started asking for an exception to the rules, at least. You know I don't have a lot of free time, and Meiling or Tomoyo or Sharon or whoever is busy, and I hate always asking if they could just accompany me and I- we need to work on our project. So…."

As Sakura trailed off, Syaoran nodded in understanding, his sympathetic vibes settling her nerves.

"Then he refused and you told him you couldn't do the rules anymore?"

Sakura bit her lip. "basically."

"And I don't suppose he took it well." Syaoran made a wild guess.

She shook her head, confirming, "not well is an understatement."

Syaoran took a deep breath, studying his friend. He wished he could solve her problems. Gently, he asked, "Did someone call it off?"

She shook her head again.

"So you two are still okay," He tried to sound reassuring, but ended up adding, "if that's what you wanted."

Sakura looked up, and her emerald orbs were filled with inner turmoil. her voice barely above a whisper, barely repressing the confusion she felt inside, she replied honestly, "I don't know."

As much as he wanted to help, Syaoran knew this was something between them that they had to fix. He turned back to the board, "fine. We'll do it your way." He pretended to look disgruntled, grumbling, "you seem like the type to always get what you want when you were a child, hm?"

Sakura looked up and to her left as she thought. Then her eyes returned back to Syaoran's, with a delighted smile, she nodded childishly, "Yup!"

Syaoran shook his head, sitting down on the ground as she followed across from him, emitting defeat, though he was glad to see a smile back on her face.

Grabbing a large sheet of paper to put in front of them, he grabbed a pencil. The engineering minor looked up confidently at his partner, with a voice like that of a coach pep talking his team, he exclaimed, "let's do this layout!"

Grinning excitedly, Sakura grabbed a pencil, and pumped her fist in the air, "yeah!"

"You know you're an architect when you get excited about layouting." Syaoran commented, rolling his eyes.

Sakura giggled, "it's all in the mind, Syaoran, if you believe that it'll be fun, then it's gonna be fun."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Her partner grumbled sarcastically. Putting on his serious mask, Syaoran stated in a questioning tone, "So we want the bathrooms to be spread out."

"Definitely," Sakura turned serious as well. "maybe around five? For fifty people?"

"That's gonna be one hell of a line to shower." He commented with a light chuckle.

"They'll live." She waved a hand dismissively, "we should have three parts. The beds and personal areas, then the kitchen and that stuff in the middle, then the labs and studies on the other side. Two bathrooms in the bunker area, one in the kitchen area, and two in the lab - since they'll probably spend lots of time there."

"Instead of a long layout," Syaoran suggested, "what about floors? Like a layered design. It'd be better to build up than to build across."

"Yeah, but which area would you want to walk into first? The labs, kitchen, then bedrooms? or bedrooms, then kitchen, then labs?"

"If we build up, the base has to be wider than the top."

"I think we'd need more space for beds-"

"But if everyone were to go to sleep at the same time, we don't want all the weight on one area."

"Then we spread it out." Sakura nodded firmly, then she paused, an idea springing to her head. "Instead of having these three areas as major areas, we should break it into components and parts."

"I don't follow." Her partner shook his head slowly.

"Like, for each section we can have a bathroom, ten beds, and lab space for ten people. Multiply that by five, we'll have five bathrooms, fifty beds, and lab space." Sakura explained clearly as Syaoran began to nod, "And so we'll have five different components that'll come together to become one big thing."

"Separating into five parts would make the whole structure easier to transport," He added, "we can have the lab space and bathroom on the lower level, and bunker area on the upper level."

"Exactly!" Sakura grinned at Syaoran's additional input. She loved working with him especially because he would take her half-baked ideas and make it even better.

"Yeah, but what about the kitchen and storage areas?"

Sakura bit her lip, thinking out loud, "maybe we could...have one of the components be bigger than everyone else's and be like the center point where everyone convenes, and it'll have a floor between the beds and the labs where there'll be storage and kitchen areas."

Sakura also liked Syaoran as a partner because he was never too nice to turn an idea down. If he could see flaws, he would bluntly point it out. Such as now. "You don't want the kitchen on top of the lab. If harmful fumes or something they're testing in the lab flows upwards into the kitchen, there goes your three months supply of food. And to have all your supplies in one location is risky, if the other parts had some accident during transportation and never got to the center piece and they don't have any food or anything in storage, they're doomed."

"Then instead of two, we'll have three floors. Lab as one floor, bathroom and storage space as one floor, and bed areas as one floor." Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, "that point you made about the lab...No matter where you put it, there'll still be a chance of toxicity. If you put it above, the fumes may flow down and hit the supplies. If you put the bunkers in between, the fumes may flow up or down and harm the people. If there no one to use the supplies, it doesn't matter whether or not the supplies are spoiled."

Syaoran frowned deeply, "We'll have to separate the labs somehow."

Their discussion went on into the night, interrupted only once when Tomoyo went to check up on them and was sent out again to buy them coffee. She brought back four cups, two for them, and two for her and Eriol, for she was going to meet him for their project.

Once she left, the partners went briefly off topic to agree that the pair with the on and off relationship were back on track, and everything was better that way.

.

.

.

Note: Someone was like, "not much happened in this chapter" well...not much here either. It'll pick up quickly, I promise.

Sorry if you're not into architecture, even though this story is based around architecture, I can assure you there'll be more story than architecture.

Personal Note: If you read my personal note in the last chapter, I just want to reiterate that the contents of this chapter and what follows in Sakura and Josh's relationship is completely fictional and no longer based on real life.

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Day 127**

"What do you mean he doesn't do the birthday thing?" Sakura asked incredulously. She was sitting across Tomoyo and Eriol in the University Cafe on a sunny mid-afternoon.

"He just doesn't." Eriol responded with a half shrug, not as bothered by the notion as the student in front of him.

"But…" Sakura seemed as if unable to comprehend such a concept. "why?"

Eriol shrugged again, holding both his palms out this time, "maybe it's his little quirk, I don't know. I asked one time, 'cause Takashi's birthday came up. He didn't even give up the date until I annoyed the hell out of him."

Intrigued, Sakura leaned forward, her chin cupped in her palm, "How'd you manage to do that? Syaoran doesn't seem like he gets annoyed at much. He's just so…" Sakura's eyes wandered to the ceiling as she thought about her partner. Tomoyo and Eriol exchanged glances. When Sakura looked back at them, she had a thoughtful expression on her face, "...reserved." She finished her thought.

"Yeah, I wouldn't say calm either," Eriol agreed, as if reading her mind, "I claim to be his best friend and half the time I don't even know what he's thinking. And," he added in response to Sakura's question, "it took me a week."

Tomoyo's jaw dropped, interrupting, "Did you turn on full annoy mode?"

"'cause Tomoyo snaps in like two seconds when you do that." Sakura finished Tomoyo's sentence for her.

Eriol nodded gravely, "Syaoran, not surprisingly, has high tolerance."

"Respect." Tomoyo nodded in awe, commenting, "I need to talk to Syaoran about that."

Eriol turned to his current girlfriend (never know what'll happen next week) amusedly, seeming as if about to say something back.

But Sakura was not to be distracted. "So when is his birthday?"

Eriol looked back down at his notes , avoiding the questioning stares of the two ladies. He mumbled something along the lines of, "I don't think he'll want me to tell you."

"Eriol," Sakura dragged out his name, pouting, "pleeeeease?"

Eriol scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "you know, I gotta study for that history of architecture exam."

"It's not 'til wednesday." Sakura responded quickly, "When is it?"

"oh look at the time," He checked his nonexistent watch, "I gotta peace out -"

"You said you didn't have anything for the next two hours. Tell me."

"I…" Eriol was running out of excuses, "might've forgotten…"

"You don't forget anything." Sakura stated faithfully. "C'mon, pleeasee?"

Eriol grumbled something under his breath.

Sakura leaned closer, her head tilted so that her ear was closer to him, "what was that?"

"Might'vebeentoday." Eriol mumbled a little bit less quietly.

"It's TODAY?!" Sakura nearly screamed, making half the cafe jump and glance at her. She shrunk in her chair, muttering sorry's.

"What a good day to bring it up." Tomoyo looked at Sakura in slight awe, "if it had been tomorrow-"

"It'd still bring him something." Sakura concluded confidently.

"Didn't you hear me? Syaoran doesn't do the birthday thing." Eriol spoke in slight exasperation.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean _I_ can't do the birthday thing _for_ him." She was stubborn.

Eriol nearly face palmed. He glanced at his girlfriend for help. She gave him none, giving him a 'she-does-what-she-wants' look.

"When he gets annoyed, or I don't know, whatever he does, don't say I didn't warn you." Eriol raised his palms in surrender.

Sakura grinned, her mind already perusing gifting options for her partner.

Five hours later, she had found the perfect gift with a triumphant grin that didn't seem to be wiping off her face anytime soon.

In the library, Syaoran barely moved nor reacted when soft footsteps treaded quickly towards him. He neither looked up nor acknowledged his partner when she plopped herself in the seat in front of him.

She waited a few beats, mostly to see if he'll ever look up, and somewhat to watch him. Not in creepy way - she was just fascinated by the way he's so concentrated. He seems to be working on some engineering stuff, she assumed, because of all the complicated equations.

Syaoran's mop of hair was a mess, as if he's run his hand through it many a time, and just now he's done it again. His forehead is creased in concentration, as if the wrinkles could help him solve the problem. A frown lingered on his lips, and his hand moved rapidly, squeezing out equations and computations one after the other. Occasionally, he'd pause, his forehead would gain a few more wrinkles, and he'd run his hand through his hair again.

It took five minutes, which was a lot for the impatient Sakura, before she spoke. Or more accurately, called out. "Syaoran!"

Her partner jumped, his head snapped up. Then he looked around, seeing the other students glare a little at them. His frown didn't leave his face. "Sakura, we're in the library."

Sakura was too excited to be meek at the moment, she grinned, blurting out, "happy birthday."

He stared at her, blankly at first, then, looked back at his work dismissively. "Eriol told you." He responded curtly.

"Don't blame him," Sakura defended quickly, "I had force it out of him."

"And why would you do that?"

Sakura gave him a weird look, in which he didn't bother to look up and see. She pouted at his lack of interest. She took out the neatly wrapped box from behind her back and plopped it on the table.

Syaoran didn't respond.

Sakura frowned, shoulders slouching. Almost childishly, she pushed the box towards him. Only when she pushed the box so far it was almost on top of his papers did Syaoran look at the box with furrowed eyebrows.

He then looked up at her, again, blankly. "What is that?"

"That's a present." Sakura's grin was back on her face.

He stared at it for a long moment, causing Sakura's smile to wane a little.

"Oh." He finally let out. "A present." He repeated as if the word was foreign to him.

"Yeah," Sakura pushed the box at him some more, "you know, that thing you should open when it's right in front of you?"

Syaoran nearly smirked. "Subtle," he commented. But he was too busy staring at the box. Slowly, he dropped his pencil, picking up the box and looking at it oddly. He then glanced at Sakura, who nodded encouragingly and enthusiastically.

With dramatically tentative movements, he opened the box.

Carefully unsticking the tape - in which Sakura sighed exasperatedly at his delicate movements and stated, "I didn't put _that_ much effort into the wrapper! Just rip it apart!" - Syaoran finally unveiled the box. It was from a department store. He gingerly lifted the lid to reveal a majestic watch.

His face wasn't blank anymore, but it wasn't full of expression either. It was shocked, a little softer, and still puzzled.

Sakura waited eagerly, for more words or any more reactions.

But he only looked up at her dumbly, uttering out a, "Why?"

Sakura frowned, "Why? What do you mean why? Why not?"

"You didn't have to buy me this."

"Do you not like it? You always wore a watch." Sakura recalled with stunning accuracy, "and you had a collection but they were all stolen."

"I do - yeah - I like it." Syaoran glanced down at the object in his hands, but he looked up at her still confused, "I don't know why you'd waste your money on me."

"It's not a waste." Sakura responded, almost in offense. "The proper response is a thank you."

"Thank you." Syaoran repeated, sincerely. He wasn't done arguing with her, however. "Did you use the money you earned? How much was this?"

"I'm not telling you." Sakura shook her head furiously, "that's the point of presents, Syaoran. Have you never gotten presents before?"

Without answering the question, Syaoran frowned, "I don't do the birthday, christmas, whatever thing. Seriously, how much was this?"

"It's okay," She nearly laughed if she wasn't so annoyed and confused at his reaction. "Syaoran, it was only a couple bucks, just accept it."

"This watch does not look only a couple bucks, Sakura." Syaoran responded with the same seriousness.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, you can make it up to me by getting me a birthday present when my birthday comes. Just take the present, Syaoran." Sakura let out an exasperated sigh, "you are so difficult sometimes."

Syaoran accepted the truce reluctantly, gingerly putting the box and wrapping back together and into his backpack. He took the watch out, of course, and wore it.

Sakura, easily distracted, grinned, "it looks good on you."

Syaoran smiled, a full smile, but it had only been brief - prompting Sakura to blurt out the next statement. "That looks good on you too."

Taken by surprise at the sudden attack, he blinked blankly, "What?"

"Your smile." Sakura clarified, having already gone down this path. "You should smile like that more."

Syaoran seemed to have withdrawn, looking away self-consciously. "Thanks." He spoke, though his voice was neither grateful nor sarcastic. It was just listless.

"Not that you don't normally look good or anything," Sakura almost slapped herself. Why does everything just come out so awkwardly? She rambled on, "I mean, you normally look - I - uh - not that you don't smile - you're not cold or anything, nor untouchable, just reserved. Um…" Sakura faded awkwardly, "right, I was talking about your smile. It just makes you look better - not that you only look good - I -" Sakura sighed, giving up on her attempts.

Syaoran was half-smirking, half-chuckling in amusement at her failure to form coherent thoughts. "I got it." He saved her from further blushing. "I know I'm kind of an introvert."

"Borderline," Sakura corrected. "Because you speak up when you feel the need to, and you don't care what others think, and you're friendly in a polite way, and you smile sometimes."

Both of Syaoran's eyebrows rose. At that moment, he felt as if a piece of glass. Of all the years he's known anybody, Sakura had defined his person the most accurately - next to Eriol of course.

"You respond, but you don't let people know you." Sakura finished. She bit her lip, "I guess, some, to a certain degree, like Eriol. But not deeply."

At Syaoran's lack of a response, Sakura felt as if she had prodded too far. That was she was talking about, she thought to herself, if she just tries to get to know him on a more personal level, he begins to withdraw into himself.

"So what are you working on?" Sakura changed the subject. Her progress, for now, was good enough.

"Complex Differential Analysis." Syaoran finally responded.

Ignoring his clipped tone, she gasped in awe, "I heard that was the hardest math course!"

Syaoran lifted a corner of his lips, shaking his head, "Applied Maths is the hardest."

"But that's pretty close, right?"

He shrugged.

Sakura leaned forward, trying to read his work upside down. Jokingly, she suggested, "I can help you, Syaoran, don't you wrinkle your face up too much."

"Really?" His light smile was back.

"Yeah," Sakura grinned as she pointed out some number. "That's an integer and, see, it's right next to a summation, so then, you find the sum."

Syaoran watched her with a pleasantly occupied smile, he responded sarcastically, "good insight."

"I know I should've been a math major, right?" Sakura played along.

"Too bad you had to settle with architecture instead."

Easily distracted, Sakura leaned back enthusiastically, "speaking of architecture, I've got an idea."

"Uh oh." Syaoran groaned teasingly.

"Hey!" Sakura pouted. Lifting her chin huffingly, she pretended to be offended. "Fine, you don't get to hear it!"

"I was kidding."

"Hmph."

"Don't make me beg."

"What was that? I don't think I heard an apology."

"Sakura."

Instead of responding, Sakura childishly stuck out her tongue.

"Real mature."

"You're probably not any better if only you'd show it."

There was that prod again, and as expected, Syaoran didn't respond.

"I figured out where to put the labs." Sakura stated, just to fill the suddenly awkward situation.

"Oh, where?" Syaoran put aside his mathematics, pulling out a new piece of graph paper to jot down notes.

They discussed Sakura's idea well into the night. However, neither forgot Sakura's adamance to get to know Syaoran deeper, and Syaoran's adamance to withdraw into himself.

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Author's sense of humor:

SPOILER ALERT SYAORAN AND SAKURA ARE GONNA GET TOGETHER.

-insert angry Josh-

oops, too soon?

(just humor me and pretend to laugh please)

_A/N: As a halloween treat, I put up two chapters today. :)_


	6. Chapter 6

**T minus 111 days**

Syaoran knew something was wrong the moment he saw her figure in the dim lighting of the lamp posts.

He didn't bother with greetings. "What's wrong?"

She looked like a deer in headlights, but waved it away. "Nothing." Her smile was weak.

"If it was nothing it wouldn't have bothered you so much."

She looked as if about to say something, then looked at him, and thought better of it. "Nothing." She repeated, weak, but firm.

Syaoran was hurt that she didn't think she could confide in him, but he let it go. Walking beside her as they entered the Student Center - where many other students were also working on their projects with their partners - the trip to the White Space was quiet.

They sat down on the floor as they had done so numerous times before, spreading out their belongings. Syaoran resisted a glance at their whiteboard and their progress, but rather sat down next to Sakura without a word.

Pretending to act normal, but not really normal for he was slowly and deliberately taking out his sketchbook, Syaoran waited patiently.

Sakura had blanked out the moment she sat down - actually, blanking out would be a slightly inappropriate term, for her expression emitted a turmoil of emotions.

Syaoran suppressed a sigh as he stared helplessly at a blank sheet of paper, sneaking glances at his partner.

After what felt like a century, Sakura stated with a frighteningly emotionless voice, "He cheated on me."

Syaoran stilled. Then unable to contain his immediate reaction of anger in only a clenched fist, he stood up.

Seeing the movement, Sakura frantically explained, "You're the only person I told, and I -I'm not ready to tell even Tomoyo - because she'll say I told you so. I just- everyone else, I know they won't listen to me, I know it, they'll go and hurt him." Seeing Syaoran turn around to send her a glare, as if to say, 'and I won't?'

Sakura stood up as well, to meet him eye to eye with a tilt of her chin. She continued, "but I can trust you to listen to me. Please, don't hurt him. I know Josh, Syaoran, and just without my friendliness he's already being punished. Just the reminder that he lost the one thing he held on the most tightly, he's already beating himself up."

Syaoran seemed to be fighting himself. Finally, he let out a strained, "He hurt you."

"And now he's only hurting himself." Sakura responded.

With a long, deep sigh, Syaoran sat back down, admitting his defeat. Sakura sat down next to him, relieved and grateful. He then turned to her, looking into her eyes, "Are you okay?"

Without answering the question, Sakura commented lightly - though her reminiscent smile showed otherwise - "Touya never let me date. And now I understand why." She laughed dryly.

The way she laughed nearly broke Syaoran's heart. He focused on something else, however. "Touya?"

"My brother." She looked away dismissively, hinting that she doesn't want to elaborate.

Again, Syaoran asked, "Are you okay?"

Being faced with a question she couldn't quite answer, Sakura responded helplessly, "I don't know. I - when I saw - I guess I felt...betrayed but after I broke up with him, I felt relieved, like I just unshackled myself. And I think I was waiting for something like this to happen, deep down, for an excuse to break up with him."

"You two weren't a good terms recently, right?"

"yeah," Sakura sighed, "We fight a lot but yeah, recently it's been really bad and I guess he felt lonely, and that's why he...and also, I never slept with him, and he needed, you know."

Syaoran understood what she meant, though she barely finished her sentences. He declined to comment, however, because he knew he would say something he'll regret later. He settled with saying, "You and Eriol would've done well with a psychology major."

"Yeah, but architecture's cooler." Sakura smiled like a Colgate commercial.

It never failed to amaze Syaoran how easily Sakura could be distracted from a sad event. Syaoran decided he didn't want to make that smile go away.

Holding up his index finger, he spoke factually, "Speaking of architecture, we need to work on design now that we've done a layout."

Straightening, Sakura grinned enthusiastically, clapping her hands childishly. "This part I'm actually excited for."

"Oh, so you were just pretending to be excited about layouting with me for the past week." Syaoran looked away childishly in mock hurt, "I see how it is. You think I can't handle the truth."

"I was just humoring you." Sakura placated, "there's a difference."

Syaoran huffed.

"Oh, cheer up, you drama king," She patted his head, but couldn't resist ruffling his soft hair, earning a youthful scowl. She went on, "You can pretend to be excited about designing with me for the new few weeks."

Syaoran's scowl didn't go away, "But I _do_ like designing!"

Sakura frowned in thought, then smiled optimistically, "well then, we'll need to find something you don't like so you can pretend to like it with me!"

The scowl turned into a serious frown. "That doesn't sound fun."

"Like chick flicks!"

The response was immediate, "absolutely not."

Sakura sunk visibly, but not for long. "Visiting the animal shelter!"

"People actually do that?"

"That's it!" Sakura grinned, "you're coming."

And Syaoran couldn't quite say no to such a bright, excited expression.

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Note: and their experience will be left to your imagination! I know, I know, I'm evil and I force people to actually use that right brain of theirs. But it'll be fun when people review and tell me what they think happens! (wink wink)

Short chapter, I know, but sometimes less is more.


	7. Chapter 7

**T minus 98 days**

Syaoran walked out of his engineering exam to find two texts from Sakura and five missed calls from Eriol waiting for him. As a man with very distinct priorities, he called Eriol back first - because it sounded important and Eriol never calls - only to be led to voicemail. He shrugged, checking Sakura's texts.

_3:44 PM_

_Hey! An idea came to me in SC4 so I'm gonna go to the White Space and try to figure it out. You should come join me if you'd like._

_6:22 PM_

_Eriol told me you were taking an exam for your HCE, sorry to bother you! You're probably taking it already, but still, good luck! _

_I know you'll be tired from your exam today so maybe you could come by tomorrow and check out my ideas. I'm really excited about them haha._

Syaoran smiled at Sakura's texts, they were always so sweet and polite, and almost every sentence were ended by exclamation marks - not that they could have been ended in any other way.

He was tired from his long, _long_ exam - it started at 2pm - and a little brain fried. And Sakura being excited about her ideas was pretty normal. But he couldn't help being curious and couldn't quite stop himself from taking a little bit detour to the White Space.

Halfway there, he got a text from Eriol.

_9:42 PM_

_Hey sorry man for ignoring your call back, it was bad timing. I forgot you had that exam so I called earlier when Sakura was wondering about you & you don't usually fall off the face of the Earth. Btw, how was it? I heard last year's was five hours._

Syaoran wasn't much of an avid texter, so his reply was a little more concise.

_9:45 PM_

_It's okay. I just got out. _

He considered also texting Sakura back, but decided against it. If he indicated he was going to the White Space, as nice as she is, she'll probably go out of her way to meet him there too. He's sure she has other things to do, and he wasn't about to bother her.

Two minutes later came another buzz from his phone.

_9:47 PM_

_SEVEN HOURS?! DAMN._

_9:47 PM_

_dude I'm so sorry you probably wanna come back but TMT right now maybe stop by the uni cafe for an hour? I'll take care of it by then._

Syaoran shook his head, not that it bothered him, he was planning on stopping by the White Space anyway. He just wondered when Eriol and Tomoyo would stop fighting. TMT was their code for Tomoyo problems. T.M. was for Tomoyo and since it was similar to TNT, a kind of explosive, they thought it was a clever acronym.

He replied shortly;

_9:48 PM_

_Sure. Good luck._

When he arrived at the Student Center, the building was nearly empty. He hadn't expected much activity, considering they had a little over four months until the due date, his classmates won't be starting to spend the late nights until the last month. He knows he'll be fine visiting the Student Center at this time of the night, though, since the Student Center is actually open twenty four hours, just not really active around the late night/early morning times.

What he didn't expect when he stepped into the White Space was Sakura's sleeping form on their brought-in table and chair. With her hair aspray, her head was cradled in her arms on the desk. It seemed like she had fallen asleep while working on something.

Unsure of whether to wake her up or let her sleep, Syaoran stood in front of the desk, staring at the scene in front of him. Finally, he laid his backpack gently on the floor, then took off his coat and wrapped it lightly around her shoulders, as to not wake her up. With a sigh, he turned around and marched quietly to the whiteboard in which there were new additions in Sakura's neat handwriting.

At the top was a list that went like this:

_Bed -_

_study table_

_can be stored away when not in use_

_extra storage area around bed?_

_Lab table -_

_tech-savvy areas & workspace areas_

Underneath the list were cute, but crude drawings with the whiteboard marker. One image was of a single bed, with three cushions to make up the length of the bed, protruding from the wall. Two arrows extended from the image to two other images. One arrow led to an image of a chair, the cushions taken away, and the bed used as a desk. The other arrow led to an image of a wall with a rectangle outline where the bed would be stowed away. This rectangular outline was repeated vertically along the wall to show that two beds could be on top of each other. It also showed other smaller rectangular outlines where personal drawers could be in between the two beds.

Another set of pictures depicted Sakura's idea of the lab tables. The sequential set of pictures explained a desk with a screen that was part of the desk and could be taken out and situated vertically to use as a screen. A small drawer could be pulled out to reveal a keyboard. Both of these could be stowed away to make a smooth surface to work on.

Taking these ideas and working on the floor - since Sakura took the table - Syaoran started on a piece of graph paper. First he wrote down questions and notes such as; _if bed used as desk, the person on the top would have to float in the air? Where would we put the cushions and beddings? _

He then began to add to Sakura's ideas and mark up his own drafts with pictures. Though he was brain fried, the engineering test mostly took its toll on his left brain, so the right side of his brain, the creative side, shone that night.

More than two hours had passed when Sakura was woken up suddenly by a shake of her shoulders. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, she looked up to find a familiar face near hers. With a cock of her head, she drawled sleepily, "Tomoyo? What time is it?"

"It's almost midnight, Sakura! You spent almost nine hours here!" Tomoyo exclaimed worriedly, then frowned, "wait don't you have work today?"

Sakura rubbed her eyes again, responding, "I went then I came back."

Tomoyo shook her head, helping Sakura up. Then they noticed a jacket falling from her shoulders. Tomoyo picked it up as Sakura got her stuff. "This looks masculine," Tomoyo frowned. "Is this Syaoran's?"

Sakura stared at the jacket blankly, still drowsy, "looks like it." When Tomoyo handed it to her, she enveloped it into her arms, smelling it on the way, she commented lightly, "it smells good."

Tomoyo smiled amusedly. The pair walked out of the White Space, in Sakura's distracted state, she didn't notice there were new pieces of written and drawn on graph paper taped to the white board.

As they walked out the doors of the Student Center, Sakura asked, "how'd you find me?"

"Syaoran called. He said he would bring you home but he didn't know where we lived, and I told him that since I was at Eriol's and I'm about to go home too, I'll pass by the Student Center and take you home." Tomoyo explained. Almost in a gushing tone, Tomoyo continued, "Syaoran's so nice, Sakura. He was going to walk us home too since it was so late, but when I arrived he said he got a call from back home and he needed to get back to his apartment so he can take care of some family things. He was really apologetic, and even when he's in a rush, he still waited until I arrived to leave."

Sakura nodded not fully processing her words in her sleepy mind, but only focused on the fact that Syaoran was nice.

"I wonder if he's cold walking back without his jacket." Sakura thought out loud. Tomoyo glanced at her, just noticing her shivering form.

"I know you are." Tomoyo responded, then a thought occurred to her, "why don't you wear his?"

She looked at the warm coat in her hands, and with a light 'oh', she put it on. Tomoyo smiled, but didn't comment out loud that she looked cute in Syaoran's coat.

The next morning, Sakura woke up to find the sun already up and Tomoyo and Eriol in the kitchen. They both greeted her brightly when she walked in. Tomoyo was frying something on the stove while Eriol sipped - from the smell of it - coffee as he sat at the island table.

"Mornin'" Sakura replied drowsily, then peered hungrily at the pan in Tomoyo's hands.

Tomoyo laughed at her look. "Don't worry, Sakura, I made this for you."

Sakura grinned, "Have I ever told you you're an amazing roommate?"

"Yes, only when I cook for you." Tomoyo responded sassily.

Eriol and Sakura laughed.

"So whatchu doin' here?" Sakura sat down next to Eriol at the island table.

"Being an annoying bug on the wall." Tomoyo interjected grumpily.

"She opened the door." Eriol grinned cheekily.

"Are you two fighting again?" Sakura cocked her head, asking like a child would his or her parents.

Tomoyo scowled, refusing to shed light on the situation.

Eriol smiled cheerily, answering the question, though vaguely, "Something like that."

"Sakura, wanna go to the mall with me today?" Tomoyo spoke up, changing the course of the conversation.

Sakura laughed, "Actually, I was thinking of visiting the Student Center."

"Sakura, you workaholic, it's a saturday!" Tomoyo exclaimed from her position in front of the stove.

"Syaoran's won't be there." Eriol added knowingly, "he left early this morning really suddenly. He barely got any sleep last night, I think."

"Oh yeah, he told me he got some family emergency he had to rush back to his apartment last night." Tomoyo recalled, "what was that about?"

Eriol set down his cup of coffee. "When he came home he apologized beforehand if I hear noise when I'm trying to sleep because he'll be skyping or talking to his family on the phone - they're halfway across the world so the time difference explained the late night call. But I was up late too." Eriol shrugged. When Tomoyo turned around to dispose the contents of the frying pan into a dish, she gave him a questionable look. "my Sustainable Buildings class project." He explained, then he continued, "At around two am, I was getting ready to sleep and I saw him packing."

"Packing?" Sakura repeated with furrowed eyebrows.

"He told me he has to fly home for the weekend."

Tomoyo took a seat in front of them on the island, whistling, "that's some emergency."

"But if his family is halfway across the world then by the time he gets there the weekend will be over." Sakura frowned in thought.

"That's what I said," Eriol agreed, "he said he's done with his HCE class so he doesn't have class monday or tuesday, and he just emailed his teacher last night to take his SED exam later. He'll be back by thursday, he said."

Sakura became quiet as she stuffed her mouth with delicious brunch. Tomoyo tapped her fingers on the island, commenting lightly, "this is all so sudden. I wonder how he feels. He just took a seven hour exam, then went to the White Space for two hours, and then all of the sudden he has to pack and fly out halfway across the world."

Eriol let out an agreeable whistle, "Yeah, I don't think he slept. And he should've after that exam, 'cause damn, _seven hours_." After a quiet pause and Sakura's munching, Eriol spoke up again. "We've been rooming for two years," Eriol paused, frowning, revealing what was really bothering him about this whole ordeal, "he never mentioned the word family. It was to the point where I assumed he didn't have one."

"Maybe it was 'cause they were so far away." Tomoyo suggested.

Eriol shrugged. Then he turned with a victorious grin to the dark-haired beauty, "I thought you were ignoring me?"

Tomoyo sat back, crossing her arms, and huffing.

Sakura had ended up being dragged to the mall. But later that night, she couldn't resist making a visit to the White Space. Something about how Tomoyo said Syaoran had spent two hours there struck her.

When she arrived she found the place as she had left, save for the white board. On it were a few sheets of paper, five to be exact, drawn and marked up in Syaoran's handwriting. Sakura took it curiously, and knowing that Tomoyo was waiting outside for her - for she had lied and said she left something there - she took the papers with her to bring back and read over.

What Sakura discovered later as she read over the papers was that Syaoran took her ideas and made it into a genius design. He really had a knack of doing that.

The following is a summary of Syaoran's works;

_If bed used as desk, the person on the top bunk would have to float in the air? Where would we put the cushions and beddings? _

_What about this…_

_There was a series of drawings like a comic strip, or a storyboard, just without the boxes containing the drawings. _

_First was a detailed drawing of the wall with the bed stowed, then a curved arrow showing the bed being flipped open so it can lie parallel to the floor; the drawing included the three cushions that served as a mattress and also included beddings. Next was a drawing of the beddings being pulled back and one cushion resting on top of another, so that one-third of the bed revealed the smooth bottom. The smooth bottom could then be detached. Using four metal pieces stored in either the bed's framing or - and here he had drawn a separate picture of where there was a little pocket next to the bed inside the wall, so that when the bed was stowed, the pocket would be wider than the width of the bed. This would create a space to store things even when the bed was stowed. - in a pocket, the four metal pieces and the piece of the bed's bottom, along with the bed's framing, would assemble to make a desk. _

_Syaoran also suggested a drawing of pushing the beddings and cushions all on the middle third of the bed. Using a piece of the last third of the bed, and perhaps two more metal rods, he could create the back of a seat. Then he would put a cushion there for his back and two cushions for the bottom. In his final drawing, he drew a person sitting on the bed-turned-chair-and-study-table with legs dangling under the hole created by the lofted first third of the bed and leaning back on the lifted back of the seat rest._

_Syaoran had another idea. What if they wanted storage for their books?_

_He showed the wall with the stowed beds, there was a shelf with books in it. When the bed was unstowed, the shelf would be turned ninety degrees and beneath the bed. Then using the same method as before, he would loft the first third to create a desk. Except this time, it would just be pulling the shelf up so that the bottom of the shelf filled in the gap left by the lofted first third piece of the bed. His final drawing was of someone cross legged, sitting in front of the shelf-desk studying a book. He also decided to include that stowed even deeper in the indentation on the wall - left by the unstowed bed - there was a contractible lamp that could be pulled out and over the makeshift desk._

It was genius. Sakura couldn't believe it. He saw flaws in her design and he fixed it.

The next few pages detailed a design for the lab table.

_Instead of a built in screen and keyboard, how about a portable tablet and keyboard so they can bring it back to their bed/desk?_

_The next few pictures showed his idea. But he also implemented hers in that there were screens not on the table, but instead, on the walls. There were also a set of plugs/outlets hidden at the back of the desk and a small pocket there to store the wires. This is so the tablet could be connected to the screens on the walls. He also suggested they could double as lights. It was better to have the lights coming from the walls rather than have the shadow of the worker's hands block the light if it were from above._

Sakura grinned. She couldn't wait to tell Syaoran how amazing he is when he comes back.

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**SC4** - Structure & Construction IV; a made-up class I'm assuming architecture students take, and I added IV because its their senior year, so they're pretty advanced in their studies.

**HCE** - History in Civil Engineering; another made-up class I mentioned in chapter 2

**Uni Cafe** - Kinda self-explanatory. University Cafe is another thing I made up, and if there happened to be a really creative university that actually named one of their coffee shops by that name, I disclaim it.

**SED** - Sustainable Engineering Design; & you guessed it, another made up class.

If you steal any design ideas from my story…..damn you must be desperate

and because I'm super nice and I decide to cut down on the number of chapters, I'm posting two T minus days per chapter starting now.

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**T minus 86 days**

More than two weeks since the surprise departure, Syaoran came back a more reserved character. As if he doesn't already have a withdrawn personality.

"I have a class tonight." Syaoran was factually stating.

"Oh," Sakura glanced at the watch on his wrist, "well then you better watch the time." She grinned, pointing at him with her fingers forming guns.

His lips may have lifted at most a centimeter, but he sure didn't look up at her. Instead he only commented, "The bigger our window is, the more reinforcement we'll need for it." He wrote down a few measurements and calculations off to the side.

"Ouch," Sakura frowned, slightly put off. "My pun wasn't that bad, was it?"

"It was fine." Syaoran responded, still refusing to look up at her.

"You didn't laugh."

He didn't retort, either.

"Not out loud, I guess." Sakura amended.

Though the conversation had ended there, the tension and the fog separating the pair in the room had hardly left.

Sakura has had it. This was not the Syaoran she knew - so maybe she was stretching it a little, having only known him for barely three months - but there was a significant change and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. "Syaoran." She stated to get his attention.

He glanced up at her, but when she opened her mouth, he looked down distractedly to mark a revision on the paper before them.

Miffed by his lack of focus, she reached out instinctively to stop his hands from moving again. "Syaoran." Sakura called more urgently.

He looked up, his eyebrows furrowed, not fully processing that Sakura's small hands were on top of his. "What?" He responded irritably to her tone.

Sakura retracted her hands. Gently she asked, "What's going on?"

Frowning at the odd question, he responded, "we're working on our project…?"

"No," Sakura shook her head, but without breaking eye contact, "With you." When Syaoran didn't respond, she prodded on, "Eriol tells me you barely have time for conversation with him, you just study and study and study for your exam, and when you're not studying you come here to work on this - not that I don't appreciate your efforts - but it just seems to me like, you're busying yourself."

Syaoran looked away, not wanting to admit that Sakura had basically diagnosed him in a few sentences. He mumbled something along the lines of preparing for graduation.

"You've done well before! You've been doing well!" Sakura exclaimed, a little frustration lining her voice, "Ever since you came back, suddenly nothing you do is good enough, and-and you act like not getting an A-plus would-" Sakura struggled for dramatic words to go with her theatrical hands, "-would dishonor your family!"

That seemed to hit the spot, for Syaoran visibly winced.

Softening her voice, Sakura tilted her head to get in Syaoran's field of vision. "Syaoran, what happened with your family?"

There was long bout of silence, and her partner refused to meet her eyes.

With a barely contained dejected sigh, Sakura looked away, gathering her things. When she spoke, her voice was small, quietly disappointed. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me. We're done here for the day, Syaoran, go get some coffee, just take a break for once, call Eriol or something." Her voice faded as she walked to the entrance of the White Space, she paused to say, "At least talk to your roommate. He's worried about you."

Syaoran glanced up once to see her back retreat, the disappointment in her voice echoing in his head. He shoved his head in his hands, guilt overwhelming him; he just seemed to be disappointing everyone nowadays.

A little hopeful voice in his head spoke, _you don't have to disappoint her._ And that was all the push he needed to jump up, barely remembering to grab his phone and wallet, and close the door of the White Space before running after his partner.

When Sakura heard the quick footsteps and her name being shouted, she hadn't expected to turn around to a panting Syaoran.

"How about a cup of coffee?" Syaoran breathed out.

Taken by surprise, Sakura stammered, but managed to smile brilliantly. "I-uh-yes-of course!"

Syaoran let out a light sigh of relief - but he couldn't have possibly expected anything else from Sakura - and a small smile that seemed foreign to his face. Understandably foreign, for he hasn't let one loose for almost two weeks.

"So what changed your mind?" Sakura asked curiously, cheerfully walking beside him with a slight bounce to her step.

"I didn't want to disappoint another person." Syaoran answered vaguely.

With a slight pout to her lips, she glanced down at the ground, grumbling, "I wasn't disappointed, I was just...sad. For you."

Amber eyes strayed to her briefly. "Right," he agreed sarcastically.

"Okay fine, maybe I was. A little bit." His partner admitted childishly. She paused in thought, then added, "I'm not that important," Sakura cocked her head, her emerald eyes flickering to his briefly. "It's okay to disappoint me. I've been disappointed a lot."

Syaoran looked straight ahead, shrugging uncomfortably. "Something about disappointing you, or making you sad, or just…" _your unhappiness. _Syaoran caught himself before he could finish the sentence. He continued in a long breath, "it just doesn't sit well with me."

Sakura thought about it for a while, then with a slight bounce, as if she came to resolution, she turned to him. "You know, I think I understand. I've been so frustrated with you for the past two weeks, did you know that? Because you were so…" Sakura gestured with her hands, unable to form words.

"Reserved?" Syaoran offered up, quoting Sakura's diagnostic of him from weeks back.

"Yeah! You just closed us all off! And I thought we were starting to become like," Sakura twisted her index and middle finger around each other, "close." She nodded convincingly, "You know, I think we connected really fast the past three months."

Syaoran couldn't agree more. He was surprised with himself, actually, he was always the more reserved type. But in retrospect, he took to teasing and conversing casually with her incredibly fast.

Now Sakura was just talking to make up for the silence of her partner. She continued, "Those three months of hard work," Sakura dramatically fisted her right hand, sighing theatrically, "just gone." At this point, she opened her fist to show her palm. "It was back to square one with the awkwardness and the all-we-talk-about-is-architecture-ness."

"Hard work?" Syaoran raised a brow sardonically.

Though a curve of the lips betrayed her, Sakura feigned a frustrated exhale, "Yes, incredibly, cracking those thick shells of yours."

Syaoran didn't respond, again realizing from Sakura's words that she had indeed cracked his shells. The fact that he was going to tell her his personal drama over a cup of coffee, information that not even his two year roommate knows, is proof of that.

Soon enough, they got in the incredibly fast moving line for coffee. By the time they got to the counter, Sakura placed her order, only to find Syaoran attempting to pay for it. After an argument between the two, Sakura won by quickly handing the amused cashier her card.

By the time they sat down across from each other, Sakura was still sore from their argument. "See, that's another thing that's so frustrating," Sakura scowled, "the only source of humanity I've seen in you in the past two weeks is when you fight with me over paying for my stuff. I don't know why you've been insisting on paying for me, and I let you sometimes, but I can pay for myself, really."

"No you can't." Syaoran argued, a little bit too forcefully.

"Excuse me?" Sakura's frowned planted solidly in her face.

"Why are you getting so little financial aid?" Syaoran demanded instead of explaining himself. "You obviously need the money; you're working more than fifty hours a week. That's almost full time. Also, if you let Tomoyo pay your rent, why can't I help pay for the little things?"

"I can fend for myself, thank you," Sakura argued back, "and so I let Tomoyo pay for our rent because I lost the argument and, not entirely - I'm still paying for electricity and water."

Syaoran snorted, "so that's why Tomoyo showers at our place - when she and Eriol aren't fighting."

Sakura's jaw dropped, "what?"

Sensing that he might've let slip a secret of Tomoyo's, Syaoran changed the subject quickly, "You're obviously in need of more financial aid then you're getting. How is it that you're too," he lifted his hands to quote the air with bunny ear fingers, "rich for full financial aid but no one is supporting you?"

It was Sakura's turn to withdraw. "I thought we're here to talk about you."

So she wasn't going to tell him. Syaoran frowned, perhaps it wasn't his place to ask. He looked down, getting about four dollar cash from his wallet in attempt to pay her back. "I just want to help you out."

With an incredibly sweet smile, Sakura's right hand was placed gently over his, pushing his hands away. "We all have our own debts to pay off."

Syaoran opened his mouth to say, _that's what Eriol said._ But he was interrupted by another voice.

The barista called out their orders just then, in which Sakura quickly hopped up. "I got it!" She sent Syaoran a victorious grin, as if she had just called dibs to front row seats of a concert.

When Sakura settled back in her seat and the delicious aroma of coffee wafted their senses, Syaoran sat up straight. Half jittery, half anxious, he knew that it was time to tell his story. Having never told it to anyone else, he wasn't sure exactly how to say it.

Sakura's calming presence and patient smile made it a little bit better.

"I never had a father." Syaoran started. "He left the family. It's weird," he stirred his cup of coffee. "to say family. It's not really a family. We call it the clan."

"Clan." Sakura repeated, processing the new idea. "sounds...tribal."

Syaoran let out a light scoff, "it is definitely tribal. We had these traditions and...beliefs that as I grew up, I began to see how ridiculous they were." He looked up at her, meeting her curious emerald eyes with his pained amber ones. "I didn't know I had four sisters until recently. The clan thought girls were weak. My mother had four daughters, in attempts to have a son, and she just sent them all away when she finally had me."

Sakura gasped, covering her mouth, "she separated you from your sisters?"

Syaoran shrugged, "I never knew them, until, I - last week was what my childhood had been building up to, I guess. Each generation, we'd have a 'clan leader', is what they called it. My father was one. My mother was incredibly proud of my lineage, my father was a clan leader, my father's father was one…"

"But you said your father left." Sakura cocked her head in confusion.

Sometimes it astounded Syaoran how quickly Sakura picked up details. "Yeah, he was...fired, I guess. It's complicated. Think of it as an honorable discharge from the military."

Nodding, she let him continue.

"My mother was furious about it, said it dishonored the family name. The direct family, I mean. The only way to bring back the honor was if I became clan leader."

"So she pushed you to be one." Sakura concluded.

"When my father left, I was seven, I realized that things were going to change. No more free time, no more petty things. All I knew was school, and when I came home, I had to do martial arts, piano, soccer, violin. She even started me on learning two foreign languages, and I was only in second grade."

"English and what other language?"

"Japanese, because she thought they were the language of the world's superpowers."

"Did you get to know her?" She asked, eliciting an odd look from Syaoran. "Your mom? Sounds like you didn't have time."

"We ate dinner together. It was mostly quiet. Yeah, I guess, a little. She talked to me often, but they were mostly lectures. She thought emotions were weak. That was how my father was, he had compassion. He was trying to reform the ways of the clan. That's why he got fired."

"Did your mother never celebrate your birthday or christmas with you?" Sakura inquired, remember that he just didn't do that stuff.

"Material stuff never mattered." Syaoran confirmed. "All my mother cared about was intelligence and leadership and...success. My birthday only meant I'm another year closer to becoming clan leader."

"But you're so...friendly, and you do have compassion, and well, sounds you were brought up to be a cold person." Sakura should've been a psychologist, Syaoran thought.

"Someone else taught me those things." Syaoran smiled fondly in memory, "my father, at first. I watched his videos of his speeches, and I learned about it. I just knew of it, though, I didn't know how it felt like. Until I was in middle school, and I met Meiling."

"Ooh, I know a Meiling." Sakura piped up. Sometimes it befuddled Syaoran how Sakura could be so observant of the smallest details but couldn't see a glaringly obvious connection.

"Then you know her." Syaoran revealed with an amused smile, watching as Sakura finally connected the dots. "She's my cousin."

Sakura's jaw dropped, "Why didn't tell me?! Oh, so that's how you know each other!"

"yeah," Syaoran laughed, "we were wondering how long it'd take you to catch on. I guess you never did."

"Eriol said you two went back to Hong Kong at the same time." Sakura stated thoughtfully. "I guess that makes sense now. But you guys hung out with each other like twice in front of me!"

"We have the same last name." Syaoran pointed out.

"Li is a common last name," Sakura waved dismissively, "and you two look nothing alike."

"True." Syaoran admitted defeat.

"So Meiling taught you feelings?"

"Yeah, and how to social." He nodded, shining with pride, "she was my childhood best friend. If I was number one in school, she would be number two. Academics, athletics, everything, we dominated the ranks."

"You guys don't seem like best friends now, even though you go to the same university." Sakura frowned.

"We drifted apart in high school." Syaoran looked down, in reminiscent sadness. "We both were under a lot of pressure. That's how I started to go into art, and I really like architecture because I couldn't quite let go of my nerdy math side."

"Your mom let you pursue this path? Wouldn't she want you to be like a doctor or something?"

"I'm doing engineering." Syaoran explained, "that was our compromise. And I got a scholarship, not like my mom was going to support my architecture class fees anyway. She didn't care much, either, since becoming clan leader would require me to drop everything."

Sakura nodded. She leaned forward, cupping her cheek in her palm, and her elbow resting on the mahogany table. "You still haven't told me what happened last week."

Syaoran sat back, energy drained out of him. He looked out the window, explaining listlessly, "The ceremony to pick the clan leader. The entire clan was there. That's where I met my sisters. I flew over as soon as possible, I did everything I needed to. I did my best. But the other guy graduated high school at fifteen, already has a business degree, he can speak six languages fluently..." He let out a sigh.

"You didn't get it." Sakura deduced quickly.

Syaoran's frown turned bitter. "I was never good enough. For the clan, and if I wasn't good enough for the clan, I wasn't good enough for my mother."

"I think you're good enough." Sakura spoke up.

Syaoran turned to her, sucked in by her honest, expressive emerald eyes.

"Syaoran," Sakura spoke softly, seriously, "you're a clever engineer, a brilliant architect, a charismatic leader, a loyal friend..and if the world were to end, I'd want you by my side. Anyone would. Out of seven billion people, you'll be one of the fifty that the world needs without a doubt to rebuild civilization. An architect and engineer is the foundation of civilization. Without us, there'll be no office, no building, no city structure, for some big shot businessman to work in."

Sakura could see as Syaoran met her gaze that her words were taking effect in him. She was glad that the cold, emptiness in his eyes were starting to fade away.

Quietly, he wondered aloud, "what's a normal mother like?"

"Tomoyo's mom wasn't around much - because she ran a company, but she called a lot. She'd always ask what we needed," A soft smile lingered on Sakura's face as she recalled her younger days, "She tried to be there for us, as much as she could." She laughed a little as she said the next sentence, "she'd try to get in on our girl talks, always asking if there was boy drama or if any of us had a crush…" Sakura shook her head slightly, as she cheerfully continued, "don't get me wrong, she still made rules and was strict and pushed us to do better in school. But she really encouraged us to argue and question her rules if we ever wanted to break any of them." Coming back to planet Earth with Syaoran, she answered his question. "I don't think there's a normal, but I think, Tomoyo's mother was a pretty good one."

Syaoran had let her finish, but a question had plagued his mind. "What about yours?"

"I...never met her." Sakura looked away, "she died giving birth to me."

Syaoran realized that this was a sensitive topic for his partner. Not as prying as his partner is, he let it go. Changing the subject, he stated, "I found a glitch in our designs."

Sakura looked up, interested, "Where?"

"It's not a specific place, it's pretty general." Syaoran explained, "We can plan all these things but it won't work without energy - electricity. Professor Terada wants a sustainable design. So we need to find alternative energy solutions rather than just storing up electricity - which will probably take up space anyway."

"We'll have to make energy ourselves." Sakura responded, understanding her partner's point."Oh!" She bounced up in her seat excitedly, "I just read this article about self-sufficient carousel for kids. So when the kids played in the carousel, the movement of the swings and ropes are captured as energy which would later fuel the carousel's lights. Isn't it cute?"

Not responding to her question, he thought about the physics of her statements. "Actually, I think I've heard of that." Syaoran nodded slowly, "There was a project in the UK where they installed tiles so that when you stepped on them, it would take the kinetic energy and convert it to electricity and store it in a battery. I think it's called Pavegen."

"Yeah," Sakura nodded furiously, "that's the same thing with the carousel."

Syaoran's mind turned quickly, "We could install Pavegen on all the floors to generate lighting."

"If we're going to have doors, we could also use the swinging movement as kinetic energy."

"But think about how much light fifty people use at a time and even if all fifty people take a jog every morning, we still won't have generated enough electricity to fuel all the lighting, electricity for cooking, and also these scientists will probably using a lot of electronics with their experiments."

Sakura frowned, thinking deeply. "What if...well, there's still gonna be a sun even if there was an apocalypse, right? We could still use solar energy."

"Yeah," Syaoran nodded slowly as he seemed to be calculating in his head, "there may be almost constant sunlight where we want our project to be. Yeah, so we could use solar energy for all general lighting. Then our kinetic energy could be used for irregular activities, so the cooking, small lamps, electronics...and there'll be a percentage stored up in case the sun is covered, like during an eclipse."

His partner grinned happily, looking up from her jotting down of Syaoran's words. She exclaimed obliviously, "We're perfect for each other! I come up with ideas, you make them work!"

Syaoran couldn't help a rare smile lifting his lips as he agreed quietly, "Yeah…"

.

.

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**A/N:** bit of a late turning point, but yeah. There ya go.

In case you needed clarification, Kinetic Energy is the energy of an object in motion.

Both the article that Sakura mentioned and the project that Syaoran cited are real. It's on Designboom (An online magazine featuring creative architecture and design projects around the world).

Article 1: "ecosistema urbano: energy producing kinetic carousel"

Article 2: "pavegen: green energy generation from footsteps"

If you have a chance, check it out!


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